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5:2

(In »The syntheological pyramid – Atheos, Pantheos, Entheos and Syntheos«)

So where in the child’s development should one place this onto-phenomenological moment? The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan maintains that it occurs in connection with what he calls the mirror stage. The body develops an imaginary ability to regard fragmented reality as in fact a cohesive reality; perception converts the noumenal chaos into a phenomenal world. The subject then emerges in relation to this surmised and self-produced entirety: the human being’s self-image is always a mirror image of her world view. Thus, it is not about the moment when the child literally sees her body in a mirror for the first time – not until the 19th century did the classic mirror on the wall become a common item of interior decoration – but rather a first reflection of the self in the world. This in turn explains why an altered world view, a new paradigm, always is followed by a correlated change in the human ideal and self-image. The latter goes hand in hand with the former.